37 Main literary sources: Tac. Ann. xi-xii, with Mehl 1974 (в 125); Dio lx; Suet. Claud.-, Sen. Apocol. Assessments: Momigliano 1954 (c 377); Levick 1978 (c 367); Levick 1990 (c 372).
Urgulanilla, had an Etruscan background). The effect has been to make him particularly sympathetic to modern historians, who see a fellow- worker in Claudius. More crucially, the mask of pedantry enabled him to survive Tiberius' reign.
At his accession, Caligula brought his uncle fully into public life as part of his attempt to strengthen his position by enhancing the respect due to his relatives. From i July to 12 September a.d. 37 Claudius was Caligula's colleague during his first consulship. In 39 he married his third wife, Valeria Messallina; her father was Claudius' cousin Marcus Valerius Messalla Barbatus, son of the consul of 12 в.с. and of Augustus' niece Marcella the Younger, and her mother was Domitia Lepida. Although Octavia and Britannicus were not born until 40/1, the possibility that his uncle might produce children who, unlike Antonia (Claudius' daughter by Urgulanilla), had Augustus' blood in their veins, cannot have pleased Caligula.
When Caligula was unexpectedly assassinated, there was no precedent for the form which the transfer of power to a new princeps should take. Of course, death might come suddenly to political leaders then as now, and it should not surprise us that potential claimants had contingency plans ready. The speed with which some of them acted does not prove that they were involved in Chaerea's plot. Once it was clear that Caligula's baby daughter had been killed with him, the obvious person to claim to inherit the domus Caesaris was Marcus Vinicius, husband of the exiled lulia Livilla (Caligula's other sister, Agrippina, was a widow). Where Vinicius erred was in turning to the Senate to confirm his position.38
The Senate was immediately summoned by the consul Quintus Pomponius Secundus: this need not indicate that he was privy to the plot. As a half-brother of Caesonia, he too had an interest in the succession. Later, after the Senate had failed to institute a Caesar of its own, it became politic for everyone, including the new emperor, to pretend that they had merely been acting in the public interest. The Senate debated the situation in the language of republicanism, and that language masked the ambitions of those involved. On the evening of the assassination, the hundred or so senators who had the courage to appear were in no mood to confirm Vinicius' claims. Instead, they celebrated the removal of a tyrant, and the consuls - for the first time since the establishment of the Principate — gave the urban cohorts their watchword for the following day. But the celebradon of libertas did not exclude the search for a new .princeps-, the urban cohorts made it clear that that was what they wanted.
While the Senate debated, Claudius had taken control of the house-
38 Accounts of the succession crisis: Joseph. A] xix.248-73 = AN 194; Timpe 1962 (c 403); Swan 1970 (c 395); Jung 1972 (c 361); Ritter 1972 (в 151).
hold of the Caesars. Tradition had it that after Caligula's death he was found hiding in the palace by a guardsman who acclaimed him as emperor, and taken to the praetorian camp where he was recognized as the legitimate head of the Caesars. In strict law, that may not have been so; but Roman law also recognized the principle of possessio. The Praetor's Edict protected the rights of the person who was in actual control of an estate until such time as the appropriate court (in the case of inheritances, the centumviral court) had passed judgment on the question of ownership in accordance with strict iusQuiritium. 'Whether (possessio) existed or not was regarded as a question of fact, but if it existed, it conferred rights'.[421] It was certainly a fact that Claudius now had possessio.
Claudius was not a member of the Julian household; but his uncle Tiberius and his brother Germanicus had been adopted into it, and they and his nephew Caligula had headed, or been expected to head, that household. After his acclamation as their new imperator by the praetorian guard, Claudius immediately adopted the name Caesar, to show that he had inherited that household; the name did not imply any fictitious posthumous adoption, nor was it pre-empting the bestowal of a title (like that of 'Augustus') by the Senate. Nor was Claudius arrogating any constitutional powers to himself by calling himself Caesar. It represented the fact that Claudius was now Caligula's successor as head of the domus Caesaris. In the aftermath of the assassination no will was sought out that would have to be adhered to, like that of Augustus, or set aside, like that of Tiberius.
When the Senate reconvened on the following day, it was too late to recognize the claims of Marcus Vinicius or any other candidate. The consul Pomponius allowed other names to be considered, including those of Annius Vinicianus (who supported his uncle Vinicius) and Decimus Valerius Asiaticus, who had been an early adviser of Caligula and was married to a sister of Lollia Paulina. There were a number of other consulars who were related to the Julian family through descent or by marriage; they too might want a say in who was to head the domus Caesaris, but most of them happened to be away from Rome as provincial governors in January 41, and January was not a good time for communicating with Spain or the Rhine or Danube, nor for travel thence to Rome. Servius Sulpicius Galba, who had given Caligula such excellent support in the aftermath of Gaetulicus' rebellion and was now legate of the upper Rhine army, Aulus Plautius in Pannonia, Camillus Scribonianus in Dalmatia, and Appius Iunius Silanus in Tarraconensis, could not be consulted and could not intervene to affect the recognition of a new Caesar at Rome — even if their names may later have been mentioned as alternative candidates. In the end, the Senate summoned Claudius to discuss the situation. He politely pretended that the praetorians were keeping him against his will; but the consuls and other senators had to accept that the support of the praetorians for Claudius left them with no choice but to confirm his position.
Claudius' debt to the guard is reflected in his early coins. A gold aureus shows one of the first representations of a walled Roman camp with battlements, arched gateways, and a pair of columns supporting a pediment. A praetorian stands guard, and the inscription proclaims 'The Commander Received' [sc. into the guard's loyalty]. The other side of the special relationship between the new imperator and his soldiers is depicted by a bronze as with Claudius, in the civilian's toga, clasping hands with a soldier, and the inscription 'The Praetorians Received'. These issues were of course intended for the eyes of the guard, and were very probably the coins used to pay the unprecedented donative of 15,000 sesterces which Claudius had promised them at his elevation; we are told that he continued to give each soldier a payment of 100 sesterces annually throughout his reign.
Other coins celebrate decidedly non-military aspects of the image the new ruler wished to present of himself: there are representations of 'Augustan Liberty' holding a liberty-cap, and dedications 'To Augustan Peace' and 'Augustan Constancy'. A copper quadrans, listing the emperor's new honours (including his designation to a second consulship, i.e. the consulship of 42), may refer to a decision to return to the traditional metal-content of the coinage, debased by Caligula. Some of Caligula's coins were ceremonially defaced. Like some of the coin-issues by means of which Caligula at his accession had distanced himself from Tiberius, Claudius wanted to emphasize a return to legality, and to the precedents set by Augustus. A sestertius depicts the oak wreath awarded 'For Citizens Saved'. Claudius was also anxious to stress the links between his Claudian relations and the Julian family. Early coins show his father, Drusus; his mother Antonia (given the title Augusta); and his brother Germanicus, formally 'son of Tiberius Augustus and grandson of the Divine Augustus'. Livia, too, was honoured; and the dedication of an altar to 'Augustan Piety' in c. a.d. 43 symbolized the new emperor's claim to be close to Augustus.40